Which Hospital to choose?

[DS4DS]

Hello Everyone,

I have just found out that I am pregnant, due 8th Decemer 2010, I cannot wait!

I have 3 options with hospitals, either Milton Keynes, Stoke Mandeville or The Luton and Dunstable.

Does anyone have any experiences/ opinions of any of these hospitals, I would love to hear from you!

Thank You x

Hi there and congratulations!

I can't tell you which to choose, but I can suggest some things you may want to think about:

1. facilities available. Does each hospital have a midwife-led birth centre, for example (if that's important to you)?
2. how it was rated by the Healthcare Commission's survey and reports on maternity services.
3. Luton and Dunstable was led for several years by an inspirational Chief Executive called Stephen Ramsden (he left a few days ago). He was instrumental in creating a very strong safety culture, focused on minimising avoidable harm from thinks like hospital infections etc.
4. If you plan to birth in a consultant-led unit, there is some evidence to show that bigger units that deal with more births have better outcomes -- not least because they tend to have more consultant cover. London is pushing towards 98 hours consultant cover per week. You could ask the hospitals how many hours cover they provide, and how many births per year they look after.

Hope this helps!